Hollywood offers free movies to boost UltraViolet (Update)

January 8th, 2013 in Technology / Business

In a bid to jumpstart its fledgling online entertainment system, Hollywood studios are resorting to a time-honored tactic: giving stuff away.

An industry consortium called the Digital Entertainment Group said Tuesday that it will include 10 free movies from six major studios every time a consumer buys certain models of Internet-connected TVs. Buyers of certain Blu-ray players will get five free movies.

The movies will be stored online through a system called UltraViolet, and are redeemable through Web video services CinemaNow, Flixster, Nook Video and Vudu.

The giveaway launches later this year and includes movies from Lionsgate, Paramount, Sony, 20th Century Fox, Universal and Warner Bros.

The giveaway, announced at the International CES show, illustrates the lengths that the movie studios have to go to adapt to consumers' changing viewing habits. The DEG also announced Tuesday that U.S. home entertainment spending was flat in 2012 at $18 billion.

The end-of-year figures showed that revenue from purchases of physical discs fell 5.5 percent to $8.5 billion, as Blu-ray disc sales rose 10 percent and DVDs continued their steady decline.